Growing ProduceTo help businesses meet the requirements of the Food Safety Modernization Act Final Rule for Preventive Controls for Human Food, USDA is releasing a new software tool to help owners and operators of food facilities create a food safety plan specific to their facilities. The Food Safety Plan Builder is a free software application, developed by FDA, that businesses can download from FDA’s website to guide them, step-by-step, through the creation of a food safety plan, as required by FSMA.READ MORE

The Produce NewsWhy aren’t consumers eating more produce, and how can the produce industry respond to meet their needs and bolster sales? These are the critical questions Category Partners and Beacon Research Solutions sought to answer in their recently released “Barriers to Purchase” study.
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Supermarket NewsPrice “rationality” is returning with reflation, a recent survey of retail food prices in three U.S. cities showed. In surveys conducted late last month in Atlanta, Chicago and Dallas, Jefferies and Bare International revealed that eight of 12 grocers increased everyday prices year-over-year, indicating the rising input costs are being passed along to consumers.READ MORE

FoodDIVEThe number of traditional supermarkets in the U.S. will decrease 24.6 percent by 2021, according to a recent report from Inmar Willard Bishop Analytics cited by Store Brands. But super warehouse formats, limited assortment and fresh-focused stores will see double-digit growth.READ MORE

BloombergIt’s been 40 years since Burt Reynolds starred in “Smokey and the Bandit” and made driving a rig on the open highway seem like a cool way to make a living. That same year, only “Star Wars” sold more tickets.
These days, “Star Wars” still fills theaters but trucking no longer captures the imagination of movie goers or, it turns out, the young and unemployed. READ MORE

Fresh Fruit PortalAs the U.S. retail industry continues to grapple with the challenge posed by Amazon to bricks-and-mortar stores, the country’s largest supermarket chain is joining forces with internet technology behemoth Google in a bid to access more consumers online. Last week, Walmart U.S. eCommerce president and CEO Marc Lore announced the new “exciting partnership” would allow customers to make orders through Google’s voice feature starting later next month.READ MORE

Roll CallOn opposite sides of the Ohio River on Thursday, a Republican leader under attack from President Donald Trump and a Democratic senator facing a potentially difficult re-election bid sounded a similar, agriculture-heavy message to core constituencies.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — speaking at a farm bureau breakfast in his home state of Kentucky — trumpeted the future abolishment of an Obama-era rule despised by many in the industry and provided assurances that farmers would be taken care of in an upcoming reauthorization of legislation that governs many agriculture programs.READ MORE

Associations NowWith the Food and Drug Administration’s menu labeling requirements for restaurants on hold until May 2018, it looked like New York City would get ahead of the FDA and implement requirements of its own. But a legal settlement approved last week has paused the city’s plan.READ MORE

FORTUNEVegetable prices may be going up soon, as a shortage of migrant workers is resulting in lost crops in California.
Farmers say they're having trouble hiring enough people to work during harvest season, causing some crops to rot before they can be picked. Already, the situation has triggered losses of more than $13 million in two California counties alone, according to NBC News.READ MORE

The PackerPresident Donald Trump again raised the possibility of “terminating” the North American Free Trade Agreement less than a week after the first round of negotiations for a modernized agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico were concluded.
“Personally I don’t think we can make a deal because we have been so badly taken advantage of,” Trump said at an Aug. 22 rally in Phoenix, according to Politico. “They have made such great deals, both of the countries but in particular Mexico, that I don’t think we can make a deal. READ MORE

UkrAgroConsultThe price of watermelons in Ukraine continue to grow rapidly and at times exceeds the maximum performance for the end of August for the whole history of the country's independence
So, at the moment Ukrainian farmers already offer watermelon high quality at 4-4,5 UAH/kg, prices for substandard products start from 2.5 UAH/kg. READ MORE

eSellerCafeAmazon is getting ready to enter into the food industry. As it does so, it is looking at a new food technology that just might give it the edge over the stagnant competition. This new technology will not require food to be refrigerated, which could be a big selling point to people. This new Amazon food technology has been developed for the U.S. military.READ MORE

Washington PostThe Department of Agriculture has invested seven years and several million dollars in a popular program that claims it gets students to eat significantly more fruits and vegetables. But as a recent critique of the research behind the program reveals, “significantly more” often means an amount as small as a single bite of an apple. The critique, which was published on the academic platform PeerJ in August, alleges that researchers have exaggerated the benefits of a program that is now used as a model for healthy eating in schools.READ MORE